Do you have a current need for that cash flow generated from the tax savings?

It's in addition to this tax.

until your financially free assets fail.   .. 

So if you have the property for a total of 10 years, moved in at year 8, little value or tax advantage.

For a long term investor:Would it make sense if you could buy the home at a steep discount and then let the owner stay rent free for a specific period of time?

He even chatted with me through this forum (Bigger Pockets) and was very encouraging that you can even do it just with free stuff out there.  

I just started using it and so far the owner info matches up with the county tax info. 

If your not ready to spend money on a software you can use tax records.

Paid platforms often offer additional features like market analytics, off-market property leads, and filters for investor-specific criteria, giving them a leg up over free options.Exactly, most platforms have to offset cost somewhere because of how expensive it is to keep the data up to date.

I'm assuming you are arriving at your cash flow number by applying Gross income - cap ex, maintenance, utilities, vacancy, tax, insurance, mgt, landscape/snow & Debt service?